6 Signs It’s Time to Change Your IT Managed Service Provider

Businesses that partner with an IT Manage Service Provider (MSP) gain the benefits of flexibility, scalability, security, predictable budgets, and lower IT costs. Outsourcing your IT support and management enables you to concentrate on growing your business instead of managing your IT network. But what do you do if this isn’t going as planned and it’s change your IT managed service provider?

MSPs have different qualifications, experience, and certifications. Always choose a Microsoft Certified Gold Partner. They have access to the latest technology, training, and guidance from the world’s largest business IT provider.

If you are wondering how your IT MSP is doing, here are six signs that it may be time to switch to a better service provider.

1. Lack of Communication

Are you continually be assigned a new contact at your MSP? Or being shuffled around every time you call about an issue?

Your MSP should give you an individual point of contact to take care of all your issues. This way if a problem arises, they will know you, your business, and your previous call history.

Your MSP should also have a US based 24/7/365 help desk to field all your issues.

2. Weak Project Management Skills

Are your projects experiencing delays and cost overruns? A good MSP can use their communication skills to understand your requirements and manage projects efficiently and seamlessly. Bad communications skills often lead to weak project management.

3. Ticket Numbers are Growing

Are tickets piling up and issues not getting resolved in timely manner? A reliable MSP will be resolving issues and closing tickets promptly, not eternally escalating them and driving up your cost. They’ll also be reviewing them to suggest solutions to avoid the same issues over and over.

4. Your IT Spend is Unmanageable

Are you watching your IT budget needlessly inflate due to unforeseen issues? Well, a good MSP will review and suggest solutions that will keep you costs down but also elevate your productivity.

Look for a provider offering service platforms, designed for different needs, and charging flat monthly fee. This enables you to budget predictably and stabilize expenditures.

5. You’ve Outgrown your IT Partner

Does your MSP offer all the services you need? This may be a hard question to answer. You don’t always know what you’ll need till you need it. A good MSP will be presenting new ways for you to utilize the tech you have and recommending new innovative solutions.

They’ll also identify end-of-life and legacy systems that should be retired and replaced with more cost-effective and efficient solutions.

If they are not doing these things, it is a sign that either they are don’t have the resources to handle all their customers or they aren’t as smart as you originally thought they were.

All this means that you may find yourself falling behind the competition.

6. Unconfident in Your MSP’s Security Measures

Security should be your top concern. Every day we hear of a data leak, or major business being hacked. It happens to businesses of all sizes, yours included.

Your MSP should be conducting assessments to find any gaps in your protection and implanting new protections for your networks and users. It’s impossible to prevent a cyberattack, but you can protect yourself.

Consider an MSP who offers in best-in-class suite of cybersecurity compliance and risk management services to keep your employees and customer data safeguarded and uncompromised.

Your MSP should be conducting monthly training and testing of employees to make sure they can identify phishing and social engineering attacks.

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What’s Next… Evaluating MSP Prospects

If you’re experiencing any of the above issues, it’s time to change your IT managed service provider. Here are some basic items to help you perform due diligence on a prospective MSP.

Define Your Needs

First and foremost, define the services that you require before selecting and committing to an IT managed services provider.

Qualifications and Certifications

Check for demonstrable experience, like client testimonials, technical certifications, or partnerships.

Service Level Agreement

Once you know the services you require and confirm the MSP can deliver, ask questions about service coverage, and guarantees.

Support and Monitoring

Ideally, an MSP can offer you zero downtime, but you must be prepared for the rare outage exception.

Security and Disaster Recovery 

Does the prospect offer a fully tested disaster recovery plan?

Transitioning

Ask if your top choice provides cloud migration or transition services.